I Believe in You, Do You?

It was another early start this morning and off to the treadmill. It’s amazing to me how you can be completely exhausted and drenched in sweat; yet feel so good about yourself. Mornings like this make me wonder why so many people choose not to exercise. Why is such a huge portion of this nation’s population so unhealthy? Why are so many people sitting on their butts right now complaining about feeling like crap, when they could be out there doing something, anything? I am often critical of those who choose not to take risks or push themselves. I am mystified by their fears and hesitation. I won’t say that I don’t understand it. I understand it all too well. I’ve spent most of my adult life in the same situation. I’ve been there but I got so tired of having nothing, of being miserable. I got tired of complaining and seeing nothing change. I got tired.

I guess the confusion for me is that I know so many people who have gone beyond being tired of their situation. They’re furious at life and the world around them. They’re sickened by the rules and double standards that hold them down. It keeps them up at night with tears of frustration and desperation. Some of these people are battling to survive. Their fighting though with one hand tied behind their back. They’re fighting a system that is designed to limit success, worse yet they’re playing by the very rules that prohibit their success and they wonder why they can’t get ahead.

Yesterday I asked the question; how bad do you want it? Today I ask the question what is it going to take, before you realize it’s time to change. How bad will we let it get before we recognize that the way we’ve been doing things isn’t working anymore. How far will we let it go? How dark will we let it get before we realize we can’t see the way ahead any longer. Maybe some people don’t ask themselves these questions but I think they should. I think we all should. I think we all need to pause in our daily routines and take stock in our lives and ask ourselves the important questions of life. Am I happy doing this? Am I happy in this life, is this what I want? If you think it doesn’t matter, that it’s a question of need versus want, than you’re robbing yourself of something better, and great. You’re surrendering before you’ve even fired a shot. You’ve given up.

Do you think it’s supposed to be easy? Do you think that success came only to people in the right place at the right time? If you tell yourself that you have to be realistic, and tread water until something better comes along you’re living in a fantasy world. The things you want will not come to you; you must get off your ass and go get them. You must learn to stand on your own two feet and fight for what you want. If you cannot take your own ideas and desires seriously enough to do something about them how can you expect someone else to do it for you?

I have the misfortune of being highly critical of people who don’t subscribe to my way of life. I despise those who refuse to take advantage of their talents and abilities. I have little patience for excuses these days and hollow justifications for mediocrity and I save the worst chastisement for myself. I see what people could be if they tried. I glimpse the future they could build and the happiness they could claim if only they believed in themselves. I have often wished that many of my friends and family could see themselves as I do and believe in their own potential as I do. Finally I am starting to understand why my family and friends got so upset with me in my twenties. Back then I thought they were being hypocritical and even judgmental. Now I recognize it as frustration. They saw great things in me and great potential, even more they wanted great things for me. They wanted me to be happy, to live a fulfilling life. Though I claimed to be striving for the same I was in reality running from it. I had my own reasons for punishing myself and practicing a careful regimen of self sabotage that bordered on the masochistic. I see the same in a lot of people in the world and my heart goes out to them.

Just the other day I told a friend on Facebook that while noble and admirable it was a waste of time to try to save other people. I remarked that if he wanted to change the world he was best off to begin with himself and to lead by the example of his own life. People follow actions before they follow words. I stand by those words still. I would like to help people. I think the only way I will reach anyone though is to make a name for myself first though and do something great in my own life. I recognize that some people really are happy in their lives. They are satisfied with what they have, what they do, and the direction of their future and I envy them. Others though have accepted a kind of half truce with disappointment. Deep down they are unhappy, but they tell themselves they should be grateful, they should be careful, and keep their heads down. To those people I say you may want to rethink that line of reasoning.

I don’t think it’s a weakness to want more, to seek a life less ordinary and filled with experiences. So often people read my articles and confuse wanting to feel alive with greed and wanting material things. Maybe that’s why so many suppress that feeling in themselves. I know when I was attending church it was often remarked that my thirst for more was ingratitude for what I had. It was said on more than one occasion that my desire and drive was immoral and ungodly. I have no reply to comments like those other than to shake my head and walk away. It seemed to me that many of those in my congregation had resigned themselves to a sad life of wanting and hoping in the belief that one day maybe in another life, things would be better. Why not make it better now? If this is the one life we have on earth why not live it? I leave that debate for others though. I refuse to wait around for death and deliverance when the capability lies in my own hands.

If I could help people, or somehow give them a nugget of motivation it would be this. I believe in you. I know that you are human just like me and just like me there is no limit to what you can accomplish. All you lack is belief and faith, in yourself. I see the wondrous things you could do if only you could set your heart to it and find the resolve to carry on. I know that you are someone great. You are someone’s dream come true and hopes realized. You are a biomechanical miracle capable of things that would blow your mind. You were created to live, put on this earth and equipped with every tool needed to see, touch, and feel this world. Choosing to live your life to the fullest is to understand and accept what you are and what you were made for. If this is our one life, our one chance; let’s get it right. Let’s get out there and do things, make things, and be something. Let us all be something more than just another number in line whining and complaining about this world.